By Antonis Stroggylakis / info@eurohoops.net
In 2020-21, Olympiacos lost more games in Piraeus than they did on the road. In fact, 10 out of the Reds’ 18 defeats came at Peace and Friendship Stadium, and this failure to protect their home court was the main reason they didn’t make the playoffs for a second straight Turkish Airlines EuroLeague campaign.
This season, Peace and Friendship is nothing but irony for visiting teams. Something like “Careful, It Bites” would probably be more fitting. Olympiacos has won six of six home games so far, marking the team’s best start since 2014-15, which the Reds finished as runners-up at the EuroLeague Championship Game to host Real Madrid.
Approximately 7,000 fans on average have attended those six games this autumn to see Olympiacos beat powerhouses and contenders, whether in tough battles won through late heroics or slow suffocations of opponents by a defense that allows just 68.3 points.
Let’s take look at the road so far that has led to this 6-0 record
Olympiacos 75-50 Baskonia (Round 1)
One of the toughest home losses for Olympiacos last season came at the hands of Baskonia in Round 9. This year, though, it was payback time. Giorgos Bartzokas’ players implemented their No. 1 weapon – mighty defense – forcing the opponents into their second-worst scoring output in EuroLeague history to welcome fans back in a blast.
Stats of the game: Baskonia’s 21 turnovers and Olympiacos producing nearly one-third (21 points) of its output off of them.
Red Leader: Sasha Vezenkov scored 12 out of his 16 overall points in the first quarter to put Olympiacos at a 28-13 distance.
Olympiacos 74-69 Real Madrid (Round 2)
Back-to-back games against Spanish clubs and a second victory in a row for Olympiacos. It was a game of some notable ups and downs in the performances of both teams. They began the game cold before both getting hot until the hosts made a decisive 9-0 run in the beginning of the fourth period to lay the foundations of the victory.
Stat of the game: Coaches like to say that close games are also decided by free throw accuracy, but this wasn’t the case in this one. Olympiacos shot 10-17 from the charity stripe and would’ve probably gotten a less stressful win with some decent free-throw shooting.
Red Leader: It was “Vezenkov time” once again for Olympiacos. The Bulgarian forward registered a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds while saving the best for last, when he scored to put his team up by five with 29 seconds left.
Olympiacos 83-68 Zalgiris Kaunas (Round 4)
“Not again” was possibly what some Olympiacos fans thought when Zalgiris took a 14-point lead 3 minutes into the second quarter. The Lithuanian team had been very much a nemesis for Olympiacos in recent years, handing them α devastating home loss in the 2018 playoffs and a near-eliminating defeats near the end of the 2019 regular season. Zalgiris also won in Piraeus last year.
This edition of the Reds just wouldn’t allow Zalgiris to escape. They quickly bounced back from their double-digit deficit and basically dominated the second half to get a rather easy win.
Stat(s) of the game: 14-for-28 three-pointers. Olympiacos hadn’t really been the most trustworthy shooting team in EuroLeague in recent memory and is far from the best this season (33.9%, ranked ninth) but on this night, its shooters slew Zalgiris from beyond the arc.
Red Leader: Kostas Sloukas had the numbers (17 points, 5 assists) but the unsung hero of the game was Giannoulis Larentzakis. He came off the bench in the second quarter, putting in some major hustle and playing superb defense to help Olympiacos turn the game around. He also scored 8 out of his 13 points during that period.
Olympiacos 87-83 ALBA Berlin (Round 6)
While ALBA Berlin isn’t regarded among the league’s powerhouses, their offensive-minded and liberated type of basketball can make them giant-killers. They’ll never stop playing regardless of the score difference – and woe to the opponents who underestimate them!
Olympiacos came close to suffering an upset by the Albatrosses at home after giving up a 16-point lead to see the guests approaching at a shooting distance with 2 minutes to play. The hosts kept their cool, got the win and learned a lesson without paying the cost.
Stat of the game: Olympiacos’s 23-for-35 two-point shooting shows how effective the team was, at least before they lost their connection to the basket down the stretch.
Red Leader: Tyler Dorsey’s 13 points were a team-high and his 4 of 4 free throws in the last 20 seconds secured the victory for Olympiacos.
Olympiacos 67-65 Fenerbahce Beko (Round 7)
Fenerbahce was one of those teams that came, saw and conquered last season in Piraeus, and the visitors were pretty eager to do that again. This time, though, a well-oiled Olympiacos had Fener behind by double figures early in the second half.
An amazing 16 unanswered points by Fener bridging the third and fourth quarters changed everything, however, as Olympiacos was the team trailing now. It was Kostas Sloukas who stepped up with a streak of crucial baskets, including the game-winner, to keep his team unscathed while handing his former club suffered another last-second heartbreak.
Stat of the game: Olympiacos’s 20 assists, which is a huge number for their 67 points.
Red Leader: When Olympiacos was suffering a complete offensive blackout and was unable to make a bucket, Kostas Sloukas kickstarted his team’s engine with a big three-point play, hit a three-pointer and drained the jumper to win the game in front of former teammate and very good friend Jan Vesely. He was the only Olympiacos player to score a field goal in the last 13 minutes and finished as the crunch-time hero.
Olympiacos 86-65 AS Monaco (Round 8)
Monaco came to Piraeus with the enthusiasm of a EuroLeague newcomer with all the momentum in the world after an impressive comeback win over CSKA Moscow. And sure enough, after dropping 27 points in the game’s first 10 minutes against a defensive bulwark like Olympiacos, the upstarts were leading by 12.
What happened next? “Perfect defense,” Monaco coach Zvezdan Mitrovic said in praise of Olympiacos. “Amazing, aggressive, clean, without contacts, without fouls. They stopped us; we could not score anything.” While the Reds put on a defensive masterclass at one end of the court, Tyler Dorsey got his rhythm going to torch his opponents at the other. The result was a crushing victory.
Stat of the game: Olympiacos produced 86 points despite shooting just 7-for-25 from three-point distance, an interesting fact that was also pointed out by coach Giorgos Bartzokas.
Red Leader: Two points at halftime, 18 at the end of the game. Tyler Dorsey went off in the second half with an offensive spectacle, making the crowd go wild in the process.